Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Oregon State
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 68, Oregon State 67
February 21, 2019
Murry Bartow, UCLA interim head coach
opening remarks
“That was a good win, so we will take it. I thought we did a lot of good things. Obviously, we were fortunate. Oregon State’s one of those teams that, we kept telling the team, they’re just not going to beat themselves. They are very well coached. They’re very smart. They’ve got three great players in the Thompson brothers and obviously Tres Tinkle. Plus they’ve got some other good players, but they’re a veteran team, they’re experienced. They’re just not a team that beats themselves and we were fortunate. The game obviously rushed there at the end, could’ve swung either way and fortunately it swung our way. We had five guys in double figures, which I like. Cody (Riley) made a huge play late for us that was big. Chris Smith obviously, right there at the end made a huge play for us. And then we got some key stops when we needed them. It was a good win. I told our guys we’re not celebrating as much after our wins. Our earlier wins, we were celebrating more. It’s tough to get wins and I want them to be excited when we get wins because it’s not easy. It’s not easy to beat a good team like Oregon State. But I’m pleased. I thought we did some good things.”
on Chris Smith’s late basket
“That was a huge play. You want a guy that can go in and make a big play like that. Chris is a slasher. That’s kind of who he is. He made one 3 tonight, but he’s really much more of a driver, slasher, big-time athlete. That was obviously a huge play.”
on team not celebrating as much
“I just want them a little more excited. They were pretty subdued. It’s hard to win. It’s hard to beat good teams and Oregon State is obviously a really well-coached team that’s got a lot of veterans and it’s not easy to beat them. I just thought our guys were a little subdued after the game. I want them to get a little more excited about beating people. It was a good win for us.”
on reaction to Chris Smith’s second-half dunk
“He’s a big-time athlete that if he ever can figure out his consistency and his focus, he’s certainly got as much pro potential as anybody on our team. He passes every look test you can possibly do. He’s very skilled, he’s very athletic and he’s got a chance to play at that next level, but he’s got to be more consistent. But he can make those athletic plays.”
on status of Prince Ali
“He’s just got a bad foot and it’s kind of a day-to-day thing. I’m not sure if Alex made an announcement or not, but it’s plantar fasciitis in one of his feet and he was out tonight. I’d say there’s a pretty good chance he’ll maybe be out Saturday. The doctors are looking at him right now and it’s just kind of a day-to-day.”
on inserting Chris Smith into starting lineup
“We’ve lost three out of our four games and we did win our first three games when Chris Smith was in the starting lineup and we just really wanted a more skilled guy at the four and that’s why you saw Alex Olesinski out there more tonight, as well. That’s why we started Chris. Even with Prince’s injury, David (Singleton) may have been a starter in this game, as well. We just thought we needed a little bit of a change in not only the starting lineup, but kind of who we were playing and who we were rotating in and out of the game.”
on balanced scoring
“Well, we keep telling them—and (assistant coach) Tyus (Edney) probably saying it more than any of us—but we just want better ball movement. I think we’ve got some guys that can score, but sometimes with us, the ball sticks and it doesn’t move fluidly from one guy to another. I thought in the first half, it did. In the second half, they started pressing us and we became much more stagnant in the second half. I thought the first half, we were pretty fluid. We had 10 assists at half, only three in the second half. I just thought we were moving the ball much better in the first half and again, Oregon State started pressing us in the second half, so it kind of changed our feel a little bit. We just want the ball moving. We want the ball moving from one guy to another and I thought in the first half, it did.”
on being able to hold on to second-half lead
“Well, it’s good. Two of our last three games have come down to the wire. Cal game, we came back and won in overtime and then tonight, it comes right down to the end and we won. We obviously didn’t play very well at Stanford, but we’ve got some guys that are capable. We’ve lost some big leads. We’ve got to try to look at that and analyze that and fix that, but it was good that we were able to pull it out.”
on Moses Brown converting from free throw line
“Well, he’s worked a lot on it. Just have to give him the credit. He’s put a lot of time in. He’s worked on it. I think he’s been in at night. He’s changed his technique, he’s changed his form. He’s crouching more. He’s gone to more of a good routine. Really nothing that we’ve done with him. He’s kind of tinkered with his routine. He’s crouching a little bit more, he’s just much more confident. And tonight he was 4-for-5, which, for Moses, that’s pretty darn good. Again, he’s changed his routine really on his own and he’s put a lot of time into it and it’s paying off.”
on holding court against Oregon Saturday
“We need to try to play well and figure out a way to see if we can win another game. This helps. It does help when you get this one. It gives you a better feeling when guys come into Mo Ostin tomorrow to watch film of Oregon. It gives you a better vibe, a better feel when you’re coming off a win. But Oregon’s a good team. Dana Altman’s a great coach. They’ve got (Kenny) Wooten now back. They didn’t have Wooten in Game 1. So we’ll have to play a really good game.”
UCLA sophomore Chris Smith
on his game-winning basket
“When I got it cross-court, I was just trying to get into the set. I don’t really remember how much time was on the shot clock, but I figured we should try to get the last shot. But when I got it cross-court, I looked up, it was just me and (Stephen) Thompson, so I figured I needed to attack, and I had to make something happen for myself and for my teammates.”
on making his shot at the end after the season he’s had
“It’s been up and down, but I just really had to win tonight. It didn’t matter if I came off the bench or started. I’m just happy we came out with the win.”
on not celebrating much after the game
“This season is a war of attrition, pretty much. We’ve been down more than we’ve been up this season. It really feels good to get a win tonight, but I think everyone knows looking ahead we have a lot to do. Just to be playing after this season, we have a lot to work on to get better, and tonight we didn’t really play that well in the second half, and we have to fix all these things. I think that’s probably why we didn’t celebrate as much, because we know we can do better than what we just did.”
on his big slam dunk
“I thought I was going to get picked, and I saw Kylor (Kelley) down there under the rim, the second-leading blocker in the nation. And I couldn’t lay the ball up, so I figured I had to try to dunk it, and it went in, and I don’t know what happened after that.”
UCLA freshman Jules Bernard
on what they need to do to keep the winning streak going
“We start out games really well and come out with a lot of energy, but we need to sustain it in the second half. We have to really put our foot on their throats and make sure that we have too many close games where one shot can win the game for the other team. (We need to) sustain our energy and really focus on little details like blocking out, in the zone making sure they don’t slice through the gaps. Just little things we need to focus.”
on his production from the free throw line
“They started pressing us. We came into the second half with a decent lead, and they tried to pressure us and draw some turnovers. When teams press us like that, Coach emphasizes attack the basket, so I did what I had to do – I attacked the basket, got fouled and made my free throws.”
UCLA freshman Moses Brown
on what they need to do to keep the winning streak going
“We just need to listen to everything Coach is telling us. We’ve got to love each other and trust the process and come together as a team.”
on making strides on his free throw shooting
“Just focus and repetition and getting tired of missing my free throws. Getting fouled and missing two free throws and giving them another opportunity to score is like a turnover, so just trying to maximize my possessions and make the most out of every time I have the ball.”
Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle
opening statement
“We outscored them 40-26 in the paint, yet it’s a 28-3 advantage at the free throw line. Maybe it’s our fault not going to the rim enough tonight.”
about their last play of the game
“We ran the ‘handle’ play, but the wrong guy ended up getting the ball, so the guys kind of got discombobulated, but we got a good look.”
on how tough this loss was
“It was a tough loss, but you know, I really have to ask about the free throw discrepancy, but that is a good crew out there and I respect them a lot. We really shot ourselves in the foot in the first half many times. We just have to find a way not to dig such a big hole.”
Oregon State senior Stephen Thompson Jr.
on their overall performance
“We came out flat. They (UCLA) hit some threes and got their confidence going. We just had some mental lapses down the stretch. They made plays and we didn’t.”
on tonight’s loss
“We shot three free throws, so it’s hard to win a game like that when the other team shoots 28 free throws.”
on their last play of the game
“We were just kind of out-of-sorts. It’s a tough situation. We weren’t in the right positions. We can’t come out flat and take teams for granted. We can’t take plays for granted. We have to come out aggressively.”